From their earliest days, both the Greeks and Phoenicians had been attracted to the large, centrally-located island, each establishing a large number of colonies and trading posts along its coasts; battles raged between these settlements for centuries, with neither side ever having total, long-term control over the island. A major trading center and the southernmost settlement during Roman times, Volubilis in Morocco is one of the best preserved (and least frequented) ruins of its kind in the world. Since Neolithic times, the climate of North Africa has become drier. The Romans would have known them before their colonization of North Africa because of the Libyan role in the Punic Wars against the Romans. The Latin name Libya (from Greek Λιβύη: Libyē, which came from Berber: Libu) referred to North Africa during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Later, the name appeared in the Hebrew language, written in the Bible as Lehabim and Lubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well.

The territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, as Tripoli and Cyrenaica. In ancient times, the Phoenicians/Carthaginians, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire (see Libya (satrapy)), the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and his Ptolemaic successors from Egypt ruled variously parts of Libya. In this sense, Libya was the whole known African continent to the west of the Nile Valley and extended south of Egypt. The Libyan Sea or Mare Libycum was the part of the Mediterranean Sea south of Crete, between Cyrene and Alexandria. According to Herodotus, Libya began where Ancient Egypt ended, and extended to Cape Spartel, south of Tangier on the Atlantic coast. Egypt and was known as “Tjehenu” to the Ancient Egyptians. Ibn Khaldun disagrees with Ibn Hazam, who claimed, mostly on the basis of Berber sources, that the Lwatah, in addition to the Sadrata and the Mzata, were from the Qibts (Egyptians). When the Greeks actually settled in the real Libya in the 630s, the old name taken from the Egyptians was applied by the Greeks of Cyrenaica, who may have coexisted with the Libu. Other experts noted that the Chinese government may have waited on warning the public to stave off hysteria, and that it did act quickly in private during that time.

Modern geographers suspect that ancient Libyans may have experienced loss of forests, reliable fresh water sources, and game availability as the area became more desert-like. The ancient historian Herodotus describes Libya and the Libyans in his fourth book, known as The Libyan Book. Ibn Khaldun, who dedicated the main part of his book Kitab el’ibar, which is known as “The history of the Berbers”, did not use the names Libya and Libyans, but instead used Arabic names: The Old Maghreb, (El-Maghrib el-Qadim), and the Berbers (El-Barbar or El-Barabera(h)). Canada: Scotia or Tangerine are a part of the Global ATM Alliance. Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis, which was part of ancient Libya. This form of furniture date back to the times of ancient Egypt and scribes used desks to make their scrolls. Conversely, the Arabs adopted the name as a singular form, adding an “h” for the plural form in Arabic. He writes that the Berbers add an “a” and “t” to the name for the plural forms.

All those names are similar to the name used by the Berbers for themselves, Imazighen. Ibn Khaldun divided the Berbers into the Batr and the Baranis. Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah states Luwa was an ancestor of this tribe. According to Ibn Khaldun, this claim is incorrect because Ibn Hazam had not read the books of the Berber scholars. Arabs called it, was a Berber tribe that mainly was situated in Cyrenaica. Scholars believe it would be the same tribe called Mazyes by Hektaios and Maxyes by Herodotus, while it was called “Mazaces” and “Mazax” in Latin sources. Late period sources give more detailed descriptions of Libya and its inhabitants. More narrowly, Libya could also refer to the country immediately west of Egypt, viz Marmarica (Libya Inferior) and Cyrenaica (Libya Superior). From the oldest and most famous of the Greek colonies, the fertile coastal plain took the name of Cyrenaica. The oldest known references to the Libu date to Ramesses II and his successor Merneptah, pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, during the 13th century BC. Compared with the history of Egypt, historians know little about the history of Libya, as there are few surviving written records. The holidays, lots of them, are invading the garden.